SENNEVILLE – The scenic lakeside village of Senneville doesn’t even have 1,000 residents but a huge swath of it – more than 50 percent some residents say – is green space.
Yet a 60-acre patch of land in the middle of the village played a huge role in the middle of the municipalities’ election.
READ MORE: Senneville housing development hot button election issue
“They were talking about putting in about 80 new houses, which would have increased the population by about 30 per cent,” said Jane Guest, Senneville’s mayor elect.
Voters rejected that plan by referendum, and guest defeated the incumbent, George McLeish, after he spent 18 years in office.
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The development plan called for putting single-family homes in the old Senneville Lodge site, a now-closed recreation area for veterans.
Those in favour of the referendum – who included McLeish – supported the plan on the basis it would have a minimal environmental impact and would add tax revenue to the town’s coffers.
The land is currently owned by the Canada Lands Corporation, a crown corporation created to hold and sell-off federal property that is no longer used.
Neither McLeish nor the company would comment for this story.
But what the next mayor plans to do with the land will be one of Senneville’s most hotly debated topics.
Guest said she supports the idea of restoring part of the golf course that was there and using the rest of the plot for a home to house autonomous seniors.
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